1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image print system and an image print method, and more particularly to an image print system and an image print method which are preferably applied for printing at a server image data that are transmitted from any multiple users to the server through a telecommunications network such as the Internet.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recently, digital image pickup devices such as electronic still cameras have been spreading which can store and output picked-up images in the form of digital image data. The image data produced from such image pickup devices can be processed and edited by a processor like a personal computer. The image data provided in a processor can be edited to desired images as being viewed on a display device such as a CRT (cathode-ray tube), and the image data representing an edited image are supplied to a printer, e.g. a high resolution printer, to be printed, for example.
Since there are a lot of types of image pickup devices, printers and display devices with various characteristics, the processors must meet various demands of these device types so as to achieve image processings and reproduce images as desired by the users.
Conventional color processing systems or methods for handling such digital images are proposed, for example, in Japanese patent laid-open publication Nos. 54176/1994 and 320770/1996. The '176 publication discloses a technique that computes parameters for mapping image data from an input device like a scanner onto the color space of a computer and parameters for mapping image data fed from the computer onto the color space of an output device like a printer, and supplies the resultant parameters to a device driver, which in turn transforms the image data in its entirety. This enables the image data to be processed with reference to the standard color space independently of an application.
The '770 publication proposes a system comprising image input devices and image output devices such as a printer, which are selectably connected to an image processor through a general purpose interface, wherein image input devices are set with image processing data which match the image output characteristics of the image output devices, and the image processor selects the image processing data which can be used by the image input devices and match the image output device in use. This makes it possible to connect various types of image input devices and image output devices, and to obtain images in a picture quality associated with the characteristics of those devices.
The foregoing conventional techniques, however, have a problem in that they cannot implement accurate color or gradation reproduction unless the input and output devices are placed in a default state, that is, in a standard condition. For example, the '176 publication assumes, when printing a color image processed by the computer, that its monitor and printer are calibrated in advance in a predetermined method so that the printed result will agree with the image as viewed on the monitor. Thus, the monitor must process the image data, and supplies the printer with the processed data with its controlled state maintained.
More specifically, in a system that includes a lot of client systems and a server, which are interconnected through a telecommunications network like the Internet, it depends on the controlled state of the monitor of the client system whether or not an image is edited as the user desires. For example, when the monitor of the user is in its default state, the server can readily reproduce and print an image as the user desired only if the server is supplied with information on the monitor used along with the image data. However, if the user sets the intensity of the monitor at its higher level, and requests the server to print the image in its darker tone, then the actual print becomes darker than the user expected during its editing, resulting in an undesired printed picture.